Hardin-Wyandot Lighting Co. v. Upper Sandusky, 251 U.S. 173 (1919)

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Hardin-Wyandot Lighting Company

v. Village of Upper Sandusky
No. 10

Argued October 13, 1919
Decided December 15, 1919
251 U.S. 173

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF OHIO

Syllabus

The law of Ohio providing that the mode of use of village streets by electric light and power companies should be determined by the probate court if a company and village authorities could not agree was amended so as to leave the control of the matter with the municipal authorities alone, and to forbid the erection of poles and wires without their consent. Held that the amendment was within the police power, and that a company whose plant was constructed and operated before the amendment under authority of a village ordinance granting it the right to use the streets, but which, without the consent of the village, after the amendment was passed, removed its poles and wires used for street lighting, had no ground to complain that its franchise contract was impaired by the amendment, and its property taken without due process, because under it the poles and wires thus removed could not be replaced, nor the system otherwise extended in the streets without first obtaining the consent of the village authorities. P. 176.

The validity of an ordinance purporting to repeal an earlier franchise ordinance cannot be considered under the contract clause in a case from a state court decided independently of the later ordinance, and without giving it any effect. P. 178.

93 Ohio St. 428 affirmed.

The case is stated in the opinion.